Introduction to advanced distance sampling

Abstract

Abstract Distance sampling, primarily line transect and point transect sampling, has had a relatively short history. The earliest attempts to use distances to detected animals to estimate abundance date back to the 1930s, and the first line transect estimator with a rigorous mathematical basis was due to Hayne (1949). Nearly 20 years later, Gates et al. (1968) and Eberhardt (1968) made important contributions to the development of line transect sampling methodology. Neither the radial distance model of Hayne (1949) nor the negative exponential model of Gates et al. (1968) is based on plausible assumptions about the detection process. Eberhardt’s (1968) work was more conceptual, and attempted to provide a class of models that were robust to differing detection processes.